Dallas' victories on back-to-back nights against Western Conference rivals were the Mavericks' biggest wins of the season. Here's why.

Tuesday's 122-117 win at Phoenix essentially put the Mavericks in the playoffs. You don't need to worry about that concern any longer.

That victory put five games between the Mavericks and the Suns. Phoenix has officially checked out for the season.

Wednesday's 93-89 victory at Portland was even bigger. It made you think the Mavericks are a team that can actually win a playoff series this year.

"It's good to win on the road in the West," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said Thursday. "You're going to have to do that if you want to go forward."

Portland had been one of the best home teams in the NBA this season. That, plus the fact that the Trail Blazers were 0-2 against Dallas this season, plus the whole back-to-back night thing made this look like a certain Portland victory.

Instead, Dallas dominated the first half and then held on gamely to survive Portland's rally in the second.

This was bigger than the consecutive road wins at Orlando and Miami in January, even if these weren't necessarily better opponents. These were conference rivals and Dallas showed its superiority.

Even with this, the Mavericks remain in the No. 8 spot in the West and that's the one place no team wants to be. A first-round date with the Los Angeles Lakers offers no hope for a second-round appearance.

But the Mavericks are also 11/2 games out of position to earn the No. 4 seed and open the playoffs at home. And the team currently inhabiting that spot is the Houston Rockets , who, with road games left against New Orleans, San Antonio, Utah, the Lakers, Dallas and Phoenix, has the most difficult schedule of any of the contenders.

So with 17 games to go, there's plenty of time for the Mavericks to pull out of that eighth spot. And after that, anything becomes possible.

What if the Mavericks get to sixth and open against the Northwest Division winner? If that's Portland or Denver, you'd have to really like the Mavericks' chances.

If it's Utah, not so much.

If the Mavericks were to catch New Orleans in the first round, well, that may bring back scary memories of a year ago but the Hornets haven't played at that level much of the year. Mind you, Chris Paul is fantastic and he's capable of dominating a series against probably any team other than the Lakers. But the Hornets would not dispose of Dallas quite as easily as last time.

Even if the Mavericks got to nothing better than the No. 7 spot and opened against San Antonio, would that be such a bad thing? You'll have to tell me just how healthy Manu Ginobili's ankles are going to be in mid-April before making a determination of just how unbeatable the Spurs look.

The other thing to like about this team right now is the manner in which they won these games. They ran with Phoenix and beat the Suns at their own game. Then, they played that tougher game where the final score just gets into the 80s or 90s in Portland - a style the Mavs haven't always embraced - and they won that, too.

"I feel like one of our strengths all year is that we have been able to play at different paces," Carlisle said. "We just can't get into a situation where we lose our aggressiveness."

This is one year in which it's actually less scary to make the playoffs in the West than the East where it appears three teams will win at least 60 games.

Only the Lakers have a shot at that number in the West. Having basically nailed down their playoff chances with the win in Phoenix, all the Mavericks have to do for sure is climb one more rung on the crowded Western Conference ladder.

That doesn't seem so difficult as long as they don't have to play too many games against Oklahoma City.